Mary Finsterer is recognised as one of Australia's most original
composers. Her work has received considerable international
recognition and 'brims with energy, invention and much aural
imagination.' (Herbot Culot, 2004).

Having completed her Bachelor of Music degree at the University
of Melbourne in 1987, Finsterer traveled to Amsterdam to study
with Louis Andriessen in 1993 as recipient of the Royal
Netherlands Government Award. She then completed a Master of
Music degree with Prof. Brenton Broadstock at the University of
Melbourne in 1995, and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in 2003.

Finsterer has been a lecturer at universities around the world
including the University of Montreal (Canada), Dusquene
University (Pittsburgh, USA), Den haag Conservatory (The
Netherlands), University of Wollongong, Victorian College of the
Arts. She has lectured in composition at the Conservatorium of
NSW, University of Sydney, since becoming a resident of Sydney in
2003, and at the Australian Film Television and Radio School
since 2005.

Finsterer's work has received numerous awards including the
Albert H. Maggs Award, Alfred S. Bequest, 'Let's Celebrate Oz
Music' ABC Award 1989 and Le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne's Forum 91.
In 1992 she won the Paris Rostrum Prize and 'Music Lives!' in
Pittsburgh. In that same year she was composer in residence with
Sydney Symphony Orchestra. In 1998 she received the Australia
Council Composer Fellowship.

Mary Finsterer has represented Australia in numerous World Music
Days festivals - Zurich 1991, Essen 1995, Manchester 1998 and
Zagreb 2005 - and received the prestigious award to compose for
Ensemble Intercontemporain and IRCAM in 2001. Other performances
of her work have taken place throughout Europe, Canada, USA and
Australia by leading ensembles including the Melbourne, Sydney,
Queensland, Tasmanian and Western Australia Symphony Orchestras,
Australian Chamber Orchestra, Het Trio, Ensemble Modern, Le
Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, Asko
Ensemble, Ictus Ensemble and the Arditti String Quartet.

In the last few years Finsterer has become increasingly involved
in film, composing written scores and electroacoustic soundscapes
as part of multimedia events for the Zagreb Biennale in 1999 and
2005; for Le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne performing at the Adelaide
Festival and at Strasbourg and Montreal in 2000, for Ensemble
Intercontemporain and IRCAM performing at the George Pompidou
Centre in Paris 2001, and the acclaimed Ictus Ensemble for
performance in Lille and Brussels 2004.

In 2006 she received a Churchill Fellowship for her continuing
work in multimedia and was made an Honorary Research Fellow at
the Australian Film, Television and Radio School in 2009.

Since 2007 Finsterer has completed a body of work that includes
major orchestral work for the Dutch ensemble ASKO│Schönberg in
association with Tura Music, a violin duo for the acclaimed
soloists Natsuko Yoshimoto and James Cuddeford, a string quartet
for the Goldner Quartet, a chamber work for the Sydney Soloists
and a number of works for her composer in residence position at
the Campbelltown Performing Arts Centre for 2009.

Her orchestral fanfare Afmaeli, was the
opening piece for the 70th Birthday celebrations of
world-renowned composer Louis Andriessen at the Holland Festival
in 2009. In the same year Finsterer was the winner of the Paul
Lowin Orchestral Prize for her new work premiered by
ASKO│Schönberg in Amsterdam,In Praise of
Darkness.

Finsterer now divides her time between compositions for the
concert stage and the world of film music. South
Solitary, written and directed by Shirley
Barrett, is Finsterer's first feature film, the music of which
has been released on the CD label, ABC Classics /
Universal.

She is presently composing an opera,
Biographica, for the Song
Company.